RIP Cybertruck. You Were Unloved, Unwanted, and Utterly Absurd (wired.com)

116 pointsby voxadaman hour ago103 comments

brightball 11 minutes ago

After Helene knocked out power in parts of my area for a little over 14 days, I found out that a friend of ours used his cybertruck to power his house through the entire mess. He'd run the house on it for a couple of days, then drive the cybertruck over to a super charger station, recharge, then come home and plug the house back in.

The battery capacity on those things is equivalent to 9 Tesla Powerwall units or something close to it.

They may be ugly, but the emergency prepper in me always wanted one after hearing that story. Before, I always wanted to install powerwalls...but I never considered in an extended event being able to drive my powerwalls somewhere to recharge them.

TheSockStealer 9 minutes ago

I think "recycling" cybertrucks in this manner, basically to reuse their batteries, may give them a more practical afterlife then when they were a truck.

TheSockStealer 5 minutes ago

I just checked and prices are going to have to come way down. Who is buying a 2024 Cybertruck for $70k+?

skizm 4 minutes ago

Can you do this with other normal EVs? I assume they'd have lower capacity, but just getting some power for your fridge, wifi, and chargers might be worth.

tyoma 18 minutes ago

Kids really love these things and get very excited to see them on the road.

They are going to be very valued collectors items in 30 years once the kids of today have enough disposable income to buy whichever are left roadworthy by then.

dgacmu 16 minutes ago

You must have different kids than I do. Mine point at them and observe that they spotted another dumpster.

trollbridge 16 minutes ago

I suspect you influenced them to feel this way.

faefox 15 minutes ago

That's just good parenting. :)

gchamonlive 12 minutes ago

[delayed]

seizethecheese 10 minutes ago

Do you think so? I'm not arguing here, I genuinely don't know.

My kids are too young for this, but surely there's a tradeoff here. Should you override some of your child's natural wonder because of adult aesthetics (or worse political concerns)? Yes. But how often? I'm not sure the line should be drawn at a truck design. (Although, maybe you're teaching your kid taste, again I'm not sure.)

WillowWithAWand 12 minutes ago

Gonna let you in on a little secret:

Every parent influences their children. It's called parenting.

CharlieDigital 11 minutes ago

I have two girls; never mentioned Elon, Tesla, nor CT to them.

Both think it looks ugly.

No need to influence most people, IMO. Vehicles are shaped the way they are because the designs have broad appeal in general (familiarity? proportions? trends?). Most of us would find a normal, well-tailored black suit to be appealing and be baffled by avant garde, high fasion men's clothing.

Why should anyone be surprised that a completely novel design isn't appealing to most?

soperj 14 minutes ago

yeah, my kids will call out, look another "Cyberbarf"

jwineinger 14 minutes ago

Same. Mine like calling out "cyber-yuck!"

kevmo 10 minutes ago

My toddler saw one and got really excited "Look, Mama, a barn is driving!"

stephencanon 5 minutes ago

Yeah. The kids I coach (1st-4th grade) generally call them 'stupidtrucks'.

hexagonsun 14 minutes ago

no way the batteries last that long

richwater 9 minutes ago

I mean the 4680 cells are used in the model Y and the pack assembly isn't that complicated. I don't expect it to be financially ruinous to replace over time.

SCdF 10 minutes ago

I'm sure they will hold value as Hitler's paintings do

coloneltcb 7 minutes ago

My experience is the opposite. My kids, and any friends of theirs riding with us, will boo whenever they see them on the road

mingus88 6 minutes ago

This theory backs up my opinion that every rich person who drives an exotic car is just an eight year old who had a Lamborghini poster on their wall growing up

int32_64 19 minutes ago

Electric trucks in general seem terrible. You only see Rivians and Cybertrucks in urban settings, the electric F150 was discontinued. Anybody who knows how people that actually need trucks use trucks saw this coming, I never once saw a cybertruck used as a truck.

trollbridge 15 minutes ago

Given US pricing of $6.50 diesel, the cyber truck with 11,000 lb towing capacity actually makes a lot of sense.

It just looks too weird.

nozzlegear 9 minutes ago

[delayed]

bluGill 9 minutes ago

People who are towing a lot may like the idea of electric. However they need range, and EVs when towing don't deliver. It is too bad, I'd like a electric truck, but when I tow I'm trying to get someplace and EVs don't deliver.

It doesn't help that nearly all chargers are arranged such that I'd block important parts of the parking lot for half an hour if I was towing when I needed a charge, then I have a complex back out (where something is behind me that I need to avoid). Most gas stations are designed so my trailer might block a pump from someone else using it but otherwise I'm not in the way.

soperj 13 minutes ago

I know people with Rivians and F-150 Lightnings and they love them.

WJW 13 minutes ago

I always got the impression that the vast majority of the F150s are never used as trucks either. Americans just like really really big cars because fuel is cheap there and none of the cities are old enough that big cars are impractical.

fooker 13 minutes ago

I have seen rivians being used as trucks pretty often in small towns.

mingus88 9 minutes ago

Truck brained people are notoriously stubborn. If it isn’t like daddy’s old truck they simply can’t see past it

I live in the PNW and you see people not using their trucks as trucks every single time you go out on the road. This includes urban areas.

I’ve owned an F150 and an R1T and for camping, overlanding, snow trips, etc the Rivian is hands down the most capable vehicle I have ever driven. You couldn’t pay me to go back to a Ford

seizethecheese 8 minutes ago

Truly terrible for pedestrians. Modern trucks are already death traps with their super high front grills, multiplying the weight compounds the problem.

richwater 7 minutes ago

F150 Lightning was ruined by the dealership network who had 0 interest or financial incentive to sell them. When they did sell them, they added huge markups.

The quality of the vehicle is actually quite high.

yummypaint 7 minutes ago

Most people driving trucks in the US don't use them as trucks, especially in cities. I think most people willing to take on a $1000/mo truck payment for their personal vehicle in the current economic climate are doing so for social reasons anyway. Whether the electric trucks on offer at the same price can compete on that front is a much more slippery question.

If we can get some affordable electric trucks in the US, it will be very interesting to see how the more rational segments of the market react once they are no longer priced out.

crsv 7 minutes ago

I've only ever heard positive things from every electric truck owner I know and this is coming from a market that's very truck-forward in terms of culture.

trashb 5 minutes ago

Indeed that target audience (people that actually need trucks) should be looking at a diesel vw passat from the 00's instead.

anticorporate 5 minutes ago

> Anybody who knows how people that actually need trucks use trucks saw this coming

I'm a current truck driver and very excited to swap out my ICE truck for a Slate next year. I need something that can haul my trash to the dump, grab a load of wood chips for the garden, and bring home the occasional sheet good from the home store.

I agree with your assessment as it applies to the Cybertruck or F150, but not the idea of an electric truck. Some people buy trucks because they need a light-duty hauling solution; unfortunately, the market seems to only want to sell luxury SUVs that happen to have truck beds.

mpalczewski 9 minutes ago

I liked the styling. Thought about getting one. Got a chance to get in one the other day. and it was so uncomfortable. felt like sitting on a park bench. I thought this was supposed to be not a real pickup. Rather a suburban big old thing with blade runner styling and reviews said lots of comfort. No, just a big old vehicle, that's not even that roomy on the inside (hip room felt like that of my old integra), with the comfort of an 80's pick up. not much of a point to it.

gnabgib an hour ago

Discussion (194 points, 240 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50391456

Barbing 41 minutes ago

Thanks, was bound to miss it https://news.social-protocols.org/stats?id=50391456

ribaspatel 15 minutes ago

The dimensions felt off to me. I had it as a loaner and enjoyed it a bit, especially since it had HW4. But I would never buy one.

The size is just too impractical. It would never fit in my garage. On top of that, the standby drain was significant. Just sitting idle, it would lose 10 to 20 miles of range.

firasd 23 minutes ago

I noticed that the cyberpunk wedge cars that inspired it are 2 seaters… maybe this shape isn't right for much larger cars?

DeLorean is the real life 80s reference of course, but in cyberpunk revival media like the coupe in Ghost in the Shell 2017, the spinner in Blade Runner 2049—those cars are all much smaller cabins than the cybertruck

linesofcode 4 minutes ago

That’s unfortunate, I quite enjoyed the brutality of its aesthetic.

faefox 17 minutes ago

Truly one of the most baffling stories in recent automotive history. All they had to do was make a normal pickup truck with Tesla tech. Hell, go ahead and use it as the testbed for 48V, steer-by-wire and whatever else if you want to - but the amount of time and money wasted to make what was in the end an absolute monstrosity that failed to deliver on any of its price, performance and range promises strains credulity. Cybertruck is the most visible inflection point marking Elon's descent into madness.

Kapura 24 minutes ago

Truly the peak of 2020s antisocial car design. The car looks designed to plow through other vehicles, barriers, and pedestrians without slowing down to count the bodies. "Bulletproof bodypanels" is only a selling point on a mass production car if you routinely piss people off enough to make them grab iron. Folks who need pickup trucks for the utility they provide have stuck with trucks that are actually fit for purpose. It was a way to signal to the world that you had extremely poor judgement and low standards.

trollbridge 13 minutes ago

In the real world it has fsd + non-fsd capabilities to immediately stop before hitting a pedestrian.

The steel chassis provides rigidity instead of a traditional frame. They ended up having to be flat, not curved, to meet the design goal.

I guess we all just want something that “looks like a pickup”, is heavy, and guzzles $7 a gallon diesel fuel

Kapura 9 minutes ago

modern cars are literally designed to deform on impact to keep the passengers safe. they're called "crumple zones" and they exist to dissipate kinetic energy to keep everybody involved safer. adding "more rigidity" isn't serving any meaningful purpose.

hbarka 5 minutes ago

I still remember the marketing for the Cybertruck. Tesla teased a neo-noir silhouette image of partial angle the truck which had everyone guessing which part it belonged to. Childhood fantasies about Blade Runner designs were conjured in people’s imaginations. People were truly generous with the design expectations. Finally, I went to the unveiling and when it rolled out I thought this must be a gag and the real Blade Runner would follow any second now, only to realize that this ugly thing was it. Then the boss had the designer throw a ball through the window. Twice.

schiffern 35 minutes ago

  >blaming the problem on the wrong type of glue, a new adhesive “not prone to environmental embrittlement.”

That quote was about the new glue, not the old glue?

  >some RWD Cybertruck owners merrily driving along could be disconcertingly overtaken by their own wheels.

If they read their own link, that never happened?

Who's doing the proofreading at Wired now? Is it all just AI?

CharlieDigital 24 minutes ago

    > If they read their own link, that never happened?

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/tesla-recalls-cybertru...

    > The issue stems from the brake rotors, and the report says more severe road conditions "may strain" the stud holes in the wheel rotor, causing cracks to form. If the cracks persist and worsen, it may result in the wheel detaching entirely.

https://autos.yahoo.com/ev-and-future-tech/articles/tesla-cy...

    > In a recent off-road escapade at the King of the Hammers event in Johnson Valley, California, a Tesla Cybertruck experienced a mechanical failure resulting in one of its wheels snapping off. The incident, captured over the weekend, has raised eyebrows about the durability of Tesla's much-touted electric truck.

I can't remember the specific video, but I recall seeing someone breakdown some of the poor materials/engineering choices for "truck" use cases and of the mass of the CT.

Found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_scBKKHi7WQ

schiffern 7 minutes ago

  >off-road incident

Obviously, the NHTSA doesn't care if you boulder-crawl and break your car.

CharlieDigital 5 minutes ago

Read the recall link:

    > If the cracks persist and worsen, it may result in the wheel detaching entirely.

Watch the YT video.

Telsa made bad engineering choices on this vehicle. There's no point defending it.

gyanchawdhary 22 minutes ago

whatever this author writes should to be taken with a grain of salt ... i mean, he's paying his mortage and putting his kids thru school by professionally critiquing everything Elon does .. at leaat based on his wirted article history .. https://www.wired.com/story/how-tesla-made-its-new-230-mph-c... ..

1970-01-01 31 minutes ago

Unloved and unwanted is outright false. Go to cybertruckownersclub.com for a more balanced take. Somehow Wired managed to completely miss the best U-word description of it: Ugly.

Kapura 29 minutes ago

>go to a forum for the owners club for a more balanced take

hilarious sentiment

1970-01-01 25 minutes ago

Go look before you have a knee jerk reaction.

howunfortunate 23 minutes ago

I mean owners are often quite regretful?

It's certainly more balanced than a forum of non-owners who's only knowledge about the issue is that they hate Elon with an undying passion.

InsidiousWombat 27 minutes ago

Just because someone likes a given piece of trash doesn't make it not a piece of trash

1970-01-01 24 minutes ago

That's not how the ancient idiom goes..

method_capital 18 minutes ago

We need this person to tell us all what we should like!

I notice this internet world we live in, networked behind screens, really demonstrates the average person's drift to totalitarianism. It's frightening to me.

hbn 8 minutes ago

Just cause an internet blogger thinks something is trash doesn't make it trash.

jjuel 15 minutes ago

"There are dozens of us...DOZENS!"

trollbridge 12 minutes ago

I test drove one, liked it, had no intention to buy but asked what it would take to get one.

The answer was wait a long time since they’re sold out. Obviously someone wants them.

voxadam an hour ago

https://archive.is/Q8NSx

Dwedit 16 minutes ago

Disabling Javacsript lets you read the article already. There's no need to visit archive.today, where you participate in executing DDOS attacks against anyone who criticizes the site's creator.

hypfer 10 minutes ago

I wonder if we will see less aggressive and generally hostile car designs in the future, now that public sentiment towards the tech oligarchs seems to have shifted.

Renault is designing cute things again, so that's a good development. So is Citroen, apparently?

So that's a good development

kstrauser 38 minutes ago

No Wired love for the Incel Camino? The Deplorean?

x3haloed 7 minutes ago

I had a pre-order. The reason I canceled was because the delivered product had a lot less range and was much more expensive than previously announced.

There were other things that contributed to the decision, too: the announced "stressed skin" exoskeleton was panned in favor of adhering the body panels to the body with glue, it became clear that Tesla's profit and valuation were funding Elon's right-wing political project, and I would have preferred a solid-axle design.

The absurdity was not what was wrong with it. It's OK to be absurd. I really liked the stainless steel design. Less trail damage when off-roading and no need to worry about paint scratches causing body rust. The door wedge design? Meh. But it enabled the stainless steel body.

In the end, I want what the Cybertruck failed to deliver: a full-size electric pickup at a good price with excellent range. I currently have my eyes on the RAM REV. We'll see if that one gets axed, too.

cush 35 minutes ago

Elon truly was inspired by Delorean

Zigurd 31 minutes ago

That's disrespectful to a guy who made a nicer car and had a less destructive drug habit.

jjuel 13 minutes ago

"That's gold, Jerry. Gold."

dylan604 10 minutes ago

In what way? That's a strained way to poke fun at someone just because.

ramesh31 17 minutes ago

>"Elon truly was inspired by Delorean"

He wishes. Delorean is a modern classic, regardless of commercial success. Cybertruck will go down like the H1/H2; something entirely emblematic of the worst excesses in the time it was conceived and marketed in, that later generations will go "did they really think that was cool?".

nazgulsenpai 28 minutes ago

I have very little interest in electric vehicles, Tesla, Elon Musk, etc. But I still think the Cybertruck, at least the design, looks awesome. It looked like something you'd see in the "Another World" or "Out of this World" intro cinematic.

swaptr 25 minutes ago

As with most marketing gimmicks, they have little to no value outside of their insane marketing.

trollbridge 10 minutes ago

Used resale value is around $80,000.

mrob 25 minutes ago

Agreed. I see it as the successor to the angular style of the Lamborghini Countach, which far more people are willing to admit looks cool.

whynotmaybe 21 minutes ago

Both look extremely cool to me but Elon's behaviour is the only reason I'll never buy a tesla. Even though the cybertruck looks awesome but it's impossible for me to be seen in this. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd used a cybertruck in a BTTF remake

trollbridge 11 minutes ago

Do you have the same concerns about the executives at Ford, Honda, etc?

I just find the moral grandstanding a bit off. The vehicle industry isn’t exactly a paragon of executive virtue

giantrobot 16 minutes ago

Having seen both in person, a Countach actually looks cool. The Cybertruck looks like a shitty unused model from a PS1 game.

Just because something is "angular" doesn't mean it's in any way comparable to a Cybertruck.

toyg 13 minutes ago

The cultural element is the difference. It's a suburban vehicle who wants to pretend it's a truck, exactly like the pompous suburbanite assholes who want to pretend they are rugged alpha types just because they drive a truck they don't really need: both would fall apart in a minute when faced with real problems.

The Countach was just the usual Lamborghini luxury scam, and I say that as someone who grew up a few km from the factory. Nobody cared if it was kinda crap inside, because it existed just to look like a cool car. A truck is supposed to, y'know, be a truck.

laughing_man 24 minutes ago

For an "unwanted" truck, I sure see a lot of them on the road.

iAMkenough 23 minutes ago

Personally, I think it looks like a silver dumpster.

To those that downvoted, I’m sorry my opinion offended you.

Zigurd 9 minutes ago

A fugitive ice machine that escaped from Motel 6

tombert 7 minutes ago

I kept thinking the design was going to grow on me as I saw more of them on the road, but nope. I still think it looks unbelievably ugly. I do not think it looks like something that you'd see in Another World, it looks more like something I would have designed when I was fourteen playing with Lightwave.